By Teresa Stepzinski, The Florida Times-Union

Patient-and family-friendly with high quality medical care in a technology-savvy environment is the promise that St. Vincent’s Medical Center Clay County is making to county residents.

Scheduled to open on Oct. 1, the 64-bed hospital will offer comprehensive medical services tailored to meet the needs of children and families, hospital officials said.

Its major services will include emergency medicine, cardiology, cancer treatment, wound care and hyperbaric treatment, general surgery, orthopedics and pulmonology. There also will be a chapel and a medical mall including self-check in kiosks for patients and conveniences for their families.

Everything is being designed to accommodate the patients, unlike in the past when hospitals were built and run to be convenient for the doctors and staff, hospital President Blain Claypool said Friday as he led a media tour of the hospital under construction at Branan Field Road and Blanding Boulevard.

Electronic Intensive Care Unit is telemedicine monitoring. It allows the family of a patient to check in with physician who is monitoring their loved one to get updates even if it’s the middle of the night, said Tracy Williams, hospital operations director.

It means a physician will be watching an intensive care patient 24/7 via real-time data streaming. In addition, each patient room will have over-the-bed lifts so it will be a safer and easier way to move a patient from the bed to a chair, and get them up and moving, Williams said.

The hospital ultimately will expand to 250 beds in the project’s second phase. No date has been set.

“Right now, 50 percent of the people who live in Clay County, leave Clay County for medical care. The need is here. The need has been here for a number of years, and the need is growing,” Claypool said.

State data shows Clay as a whole is among the most under-served when it comes to hospital beds per 1,000 residents. A 21 percent growth is projected in the Medicare population over the next few years, Claypool said.

The 147,500-square-foot hospital and adjacent 50,000-square-foot medical office building is just over the tree line from the planned First Coast Outer Beltway. The site offers easy access to residents and travelers in Clay and Bradford counties who routinely faced lengthy drives slowed by heavy traffic for acute medical care.

The hospital can easily serve fast-growing Oakleaf and Fleming Island communities as well as Middleburg and Green Cove Springs. It actually is closer to Starke in Bradford County than Gainesville, which is where many Starke residents go for care, he said.

The hospital/medical office complex represents a total $110 million investment in the county, officials said. The hospital alone brings 300 new jobs, while almost 500 more come with the medical office building. The project’s already brought in about 1,500 construction jobs. Claypool said.

Designed to be hurricane resistant and self-sufficient during a disaster, the hospital includes about 6,000 square feet of space to serve as an emergency disaster.